A major patching project is planned for later this month on Occidental Highway while Lenawee County Road Commission officials renew efforts to have it repaved with extra road money the state Legislature approved Wednesday.

The state road-funding measure is to make $115 million available for selected projects across the state. Another $100 million is to go into the state’s formula for distributing fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees among road agencies in the state.

“That’s a good start,” said Scott Merillat, managing director of the Lenawee County Road Commission.

“The $100 million through the formula will about cover our excess snowplowing this year,” he said. “It doesn’t help with fixing the potholes this spring.”

He estimated Lenawee County will receive an additional $400,000 to $450,000 through the formula. He expects snowplowing costs to be $400,00 to $500,000 over the county’s $900,000 winter maintenance budget.

Merillat said it will cost $30,000 to $40,000 to patch holes this spring in the Occidental Highway and Valley Road route between Adrian and Tecumseh. One-mile sections of the road are to be closed later this month while patching crews go to work, he said.

Merillat said he is also contacting local legislators to renew a plea for help to repave the Occidental Highway route.

The road-funding bill includes $115 million for projects to be selected around the state. A first round of projects was selected in December with another $115 million in one-time state funding. Controversy followed selection of a $1.2 million repaving of M-52 from Valley Road to M-50 instead of the proposed $1.3 million Occidental Highway project. The state highway is in good condition while the more heavily traveled county road is seriously deteriorating.

No time frame for announcing a second round of road-project funding was available Thursday, said Kari Arend of the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Merillat said he is also working on other revenue sources to repave Occidental Highway this year. A $375,000 state grant has been awarded for the 2015 fiscal year that would pay 50 percent of the cost of repaving half the five-mile route, he said. The state’s 2015 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, he said, so an October paving project may be possible. Federal funding is being sought to complete the entire route, he said, but it may not be available this fall.

Patching the route’s potholes is to begin as soon as weather permits, Merillat said.

The road commission’s DuraPatcher and two hot-patching trucks with crews of up to 15 workers are to fill potholes in one-mile sections, he said. The road will be closed and traffic detoured around sections where the crews are working, he said.

“I would hope we could get across in a week,” he said. The hot asphalt patching is more durable than loose cold patch material used as a temporary fix on Occidental Highway several weeks ago.